Yet astonishingly this unlikely figure is the biggest thing - in every sense - to hit the West End this year.

It may seem difficult to credit but this is Michael Crawford OBE in his first London stage role since Phantom of The Opera 18 years ago.

Crawford, 62, is starring as the compelling Count Fosco in Andrew Lloyd Webber's brand new musical, The Woman in White, which opens at the Palace Theatre next week.

It may appear that Crawford has ballooned in weight but, in fact, his prodigious girth is the result of 90 minutes with a team of make-up artists and dressers.

Producer Sonia Friedman told the Standard: "Michael is wearing a fatsuit and a lot of prosthetics every time he goes on stage as Count Fosco, because he's corpulent, he loves his food, his wine - he's got a lust for life.

"During the first few previews of the show nobody knew at all what they were coming to see.

"We had lots of people in the audience leafing through their programmes when Michael came on wondering if that really was him. And at the end of the performances we had people asking us when he was going to be starting in the show."

Seven-times Olivier Award winner William Dudley has created a revolutionary 3D technique for the musical that, for the first time, will see a West End production set that is not actually there, but is projected.